Dr Lin Mali, aged 80-year-old and widely recognized by Taiwan medicine society as “Mother of Taiwanese Blood”, receives the 2017 Medical Service Award from Welfare Foundation for her long term engagement and contribution to establish a free blood transfusion system. She is also invited to meet President Tsai Ing-wen in the Presidential Office Building to honor her extraordinary medical achievement and influential contribution to Taiwanese health and well-being on September 22nd.

When Dr Mary Lin was a senior student in the medical college in 1950s, she unfortunately got a rare blood disease, called aplastic anemia, making her stem cell could not generate mature blood cell. If there was not an incessant relay of blood transfusion, donated from her professors, classmates and friends, she could not survive then because a huge amount of blood had to be bought from the so-called “blood-bull-market” and such supply was not always sufficient and stable.

Experiencing the chaos of blood transfusion in Taiwan society, Dr Lin Mali became strongly motivated to work with Taiwan Society of Blood Transfusion when she started to serve in MacKay Memorial Hospital. And this joint cooperation help Dr Lin cast the the blood transfusion without compensation into a government policy which was launched in 1992 by Health Administration, now Health and Welfare Ministry. Four years later in 1996, Taiwan was formerly recommended by one renown international medical magazine to become one of 12 best countries with sound blood transfusion system.

Praised as “Mother of Taiwanese Blood”, Dr Lin is also famous for her pioneering study of blood serum of each Taiwanese people. Her peerless academic achievement on blood serum studies proved a strong and similar genetic relationship exists between Taiwan’s aboriginal peoples and the Austronesian peoples. Now she still works hard on many things for the well-being of Taiwan society, for example, setting up a blood tank for the Taiwanese, improving the R&D methods of paternity testing and establishing a laboratory of molecular anthropology with a vision to bring home those victims of 228 Massacre through a DNA pairing analysis.